Fighting actions intensified in Ukraine after Russia’s ultimatum
2022.12.27 10:31
Fighting actions intensified in Ukraine after Russia’s ultimatum
Budrigannews.com – On Tuesday, a day after Russia’s foreign minister stated that Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for an end to the war or face defeat on the battlefield, Russian forces shelled and bombed towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The recognition by Ukraine of Russia’s conquest of a fifth of its territory is one of those demands. Armed and supported by NATO allies and the United States, Kyiv has pledged to reclaim all occupied territory and expel all Russian soldiers.
In its most recent update on the situation in Ukraine, the British defense ministry stated that fighting was particularly intense around the strategic eastern city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province and the further north city of Svatove in the Luhansk province. Russia claims Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the industrial Donbas, as well as two southern Ukrainian regions.
The British ministry posted a tweet that stated, “Russia continues to initiate frequent small-scale assaults in these areas (of Bakhmut and Svatove), although little territory has changed hands.”
In Bakhmut, reporters from Reuters saw fires raging in a large residential building, debris littering the streets, and most buildings’ windows had been blown out.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying late on Monday, “Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy.”
“The gist is clear: Complete them for your own benefit. “If not, the issue will be decided by the Russian army,” he said, reiterating Moscow’s view that the West is using Ukraine as a pawn to “weaken or even destroy” Russia.
According to Kyiv and its Western allies, Russia is engaged in a brutal, imperialist land grab in Ukraine.
The Group of Seven nations, the European Union, and Australia imposed a $60 per barrel cap on Moscow on December 5 to limit Russia’s ability to fund the war. The West has imposed extensive sanctions on Moscow.
In the most explicit acknowledgement yet that the cap could impact finances, Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated on Tuesday that the budget deficit could be larger than the planned 2% of national output in 2023 as the oil price cap reduces export income.
Subsequent to experiencing a progression of losses in its “extraordinary military activity,” Russia is currently looking for a front line triumph by catching Bakhmut, a modern city with a pre-war populace of 70,000, presently diminished to around 10,000 generally older occupants.
Russia may be able to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two larger cities, if it takes control of the city.
Our structure has been destroyed. Oleksandr, 85, said, “There used to be a shop in our building. Now it’s gone.” He added that he was the only one still living there.
Pilaheia, 73, said she had long been used to the “constant explosions” nearby.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks in the areas of two settlements in Luhansk province and six in Donetsk over the course of the previous 24 hours.
It likewise announced more Russian shelling of Kherson city in southern Ukraine, in the Zaporizhzhia area and of settlements in Kharkiv locale in the upper east close to the Russian line.
Military analyst Oleh Zhdanov, who is based in Kyiv, said that high-altitude areas near Kreminna in the Luhansk region and Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region saw heavy fighting.
In a video that was shared on social media, Zhdanov stated, “The arc of fire in the Donetsk region continues to burn.”
More Russians do not feel New Year’s holidays because of Ukraine
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure have left nearly nine million people without power, or about a quarter of the country’s population.
When President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24, he had planned a quick operation to subdue Ukraine. However, Russia has suffered numerous embarrassing defeats on the battlefield.
A Ukrainian-looking drone flew hundreds of kilometers through Russian airspace on Monday, causing a deadly explosion at the main base for Russia’s strategic bombers, the latest attempt to expose flaws in the country’s air defenses.
Three service members were killed when the drone was shot down from Moscow’s Engels air base, the company claimed.
The base, which Kyiv claims Moscow used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is hundreds of miles away from the Ukrainian frontier. It serves as the primary airfield for the bombers. As part of Russia’s long-term strategic deterrent, the same planes are also designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles.
While the Russian defense ministry claimed that no planes were damaged, social media accounts in both Russia and Ukraine claimed that several were destroyed. The reports could not be independently verified by Reuters.
In accordance with its usual policy regarding incidents within Russia, Ukraine has not commented on the attack. However, on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force stated that, following the attack, Russia had moved numerous planes from Engels to other airbases and that overnight enemy aviation activity had “significantly decreased.”
In addition to Putin’s decision in September to enlist hundreds of thousands of men in Russia’s first draft since World War II, such attacks have brought the Ukraine conflict much closer to common Russians, who could largely ignore it in the early months of the war.
Some Muscovites who went to Gorky Park to see ice sculptures said that the war was making them feel bad at the holidays.
Maria, a visitor, commented, “It is difficult to be cheerful when you understand that people out there are going through such awful times.”
